waves

somehow my melancholy yesterday must have seeped into the house because when we all woke up--me, sierradog, owen--the whole house was just funky. the bathroom door (the one with all the tp and diapers) had somehow mysteriously locked itself and while i was trying to stick various pointy things in the doorknob (some of which now live there permanently) owen was moaning about the house crawling into all the "naughty" nooks and going down the list of "no, nos" and on my way to intercept i nearly slipped in an early morning couldntwaitformywalk puddle of sierrapee. that was it. it was time to quit moping and mucking about the house sorting through drawers and labeling boxes.

we met b&w at the starbucksformerlyknownasdiedrichs in dana point and grabbed some yummy coldbrew iced coffees, vanilla horizon milk in a box for the boys, some 'bucks picnic catering (pretty impressive actually in a bristol farm's kind of way--nice curried turkey salad, tarragon chicken salad sandwich, very sweet fresh pineapple, and an italian style pasta 'chop') and headed for the "tall ships." and right away it was exactly where we needed to be. after a 2-toddler car crawl and swap along the dock ("west hold pj and hotrod"; "owen going backwards like towmater"; "where is red car?") and many many "peet stops" we made it to the picnic bench perched over the waves--more amazing then any postcard i'd sent home. within minutes we had seen two dolphins, noticed that the water was really seaglass green, and were four on a bench bathed in seaspray. then both boys chased pigeons and drove their cars on the massive rocks (thought of grampa here: "look at that geology!") and we packed up to go through the green cage to the beach.

and here's where all the waves are. really, right in that little cove in dana point--the wave paused, and then drew out again, sighing like a sleeper whose breath comes and goes unconsciously (yes, from that vw masterpiece, the waves) and owen and i threw off our shoes (well, stashed them carefully on a rock lest the tide sweep them away) and ran in and out of the sea screaming "here come the waves! wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!". yeah, we really yelled whee and laughed and jumped and didn't mind a bit when the bathwater ocean soaked us up to our belly button. and we were really happy. and so it didn't matter that owen had a total pre-nap, post sun and salt exhaustion breakdown on the way back to the car because he slept like an angel all the way home and for two hours afterwards. and i cleared away those piles and filled the house with the jars of flowers freshcut from my bursting iceberg roses. and then when he awoke we watered those roses and ourselves and shared frozen stonyfield farm organic strawberry yogurt squeezers (which a fabulous treat even if you don't buy things labeled "squeezers"). and after he went to bed and i came downstairs it seemd like if i didn't open that copy of the waves i'd carried back and forth across two oceans it would all be rather anti-climatic. and so i did!